Model History:
Produced in the late 1950s or early 1960s by the Douglas Aircraft
Model Shop. I Acquired it on March 26, 1973 from a private collector
in a trade using 3 of my models (a 1/60 Air France 707-320 metal
model made by Riffe, a 1/100 Swissair 747-100 model made by Belplast
and a 1/164 Hughes Airwest DC-9-32 made by Marketing Aids) for
this one Beautiful Iberia DC-8. It took 3 months of negotiations
to acquire it but it was sure worth it! This
was both my first 1/50 scale DC-8 model *and* my first Douglas
Factory Polished Aluminum Model and thus was the start of my long
love affair with the Douglas Factory Polished Aluminum DC-8 models.

Iberia’s
DC-8 History: Iberia, Spain’s Flag Carrier, began service
in 1936 serving routes within the Spanish Republic. In 1939 Iberia
started it’s first international route from Madrid to Lisbon.
After World War II Iberia became the first airline to fly from
Spain to Buenos Aires and later added routes to Cuba, Puerto Rico,
Mexico, Central and South America and the USA. During the 1950s
the airline used Lockheed Constellations to service it’s long
haul requirements and then entered the pure jet age with an order
for 3 Douglas DC-8s in 1959. The delivery of these 3 Factory Ordered
DC-8-52s in 1961 were just the beginning of Iberia’s long relationship
with the DC-8. The DC-8 served well in filling Iberia’s long haul
needs throughout the 1960s, 1970s and into the 1980s. In fact,
though Iberia ceased regular passenger DC-8 service in 1983, the
airline continues to utilize -to this day- the DC-8-62 Freighter
– 2 of which are leased from Cygnus Airlines. It’s wonderful to
see that the DC-8 continues to "soldier on" in one form
or another!Click Here
to See Iberia’s DC-8 Fleet Information.